


extraordinary magic

by megabees



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Love, brief appearances of vox machina, pikelan, this is just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:03:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21851890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megabees/pseuds/megabees
Summary: Four vignettes of Pike and Scanlan in the future.
Relationships: Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	extraordinary magic

Their love is magic.

Hers, divine. His, some learning and some passion, but never a solid answer.

His, harnessed through song, hers through prayer.

Throughout their lives, though they seem to blend into each other. His music, a form of prayer, her devotion, almost a song.

\-----------------------------------

After the defeat of Vecna, after everything calms down, Pike still works at the temple. It’s a sort of peace she gets there, despite being the Chosen of Sarenrae, despite knowing she can call for her intervention whenever needed. There is an odd form of respect inherent in a temple, a calmness and a comfort in the idea that things are bigger than you.

Pike yearns for that quiet some days. Her bad days usually find her there at the temple, searching for just something to calm the mind, calm the racing thoughts, make the heart stop beating as if every single threat is coming towards her, like she will have to watch all of her friends die and not be able to save a single one. She already couldn’t save one. Anxious. Afraid. Alone.

In the temple, she is never alone. Sarenrae is always with her.

Scanlan’s bad days take a different form.

Scanlan has never been good with a loss of control, a loss of knowledge, not having the upper hand. He’s done a lot of stupid shit, he knows that his actions have consequences, but his worst moments come when he can’t control what people think of him, or when he can’t change other’s minds. On his bad days, he replays Vax’s death over and over again, knowing that he could have controlled this loss, knowing _He Could Have Saved Him_. In this case, he didn’t have the upper hand. He couldn’t outsmart a god.

When the crushing weight of his lack of control hits him, when the grief is overbearing and there is nothing he can do to change it, the only option for him is to sleep. For Scanlan, there is no “working through the pain”, no easy solution to help him find peace. Music becomes too loud, light becomes too bright, nothing can bring him numbness other than sleep. It is the rawest form of escapism, the truest form of freedom.

Pike knows this. Usually, on one of Scanlan’s bad days, she will allow him to sleep as long as he needs, until the sun begins to set and he needs to eat. She will bring him dinner, and then they will sit in bed and hold each other, knowing that the pain may be everlasting, but the current wave is only temporary.

On one of these such days, Scanlan wakes before Pike brings him dinner. For some reason, the grief isn’t as crushing as it usually is when he rises, so he sneaks out to the kitchen to surprise Pike. He is unprepared for what he sees.

Pike, lit by the setting sun, her white hair reflecting orange and gold and pink. Haloed almost, how fitting, he thinks, and she is breathtaking. She’s humming a small tune, softly and under her breath, shaking her hips in time with her own little beat while stirring a pot of stew. In this light, Scanlan has never been more in love with her. She is capable of healing with magic, but for him, in this moment, her music, it makes him whole.

\-----------------------------------------------

Occasionally, when Vasselheim or Emon’s temples come calling, Pike has to leave Scanlan in Westeruun to go assist with a resurrection or rebuilding or some other form of clerical duties.

They don’t like to separate. Scanlan would like her to tell all of the other religious figures that he’s her constant plus one, but Pike knows that if they were to go together, she wouldn’t want to do her duties, she would just want to cause chaos with him. It is a hard life to constantly be devout.

For her, leaving reminds her of loss. She has missed so much, she has been unable to save her friends so many times due to not being there. She has been so saddled with responsibility that she isn’t always able to help, she has been gone so often before that home didn’t feel like home. You go away for a time, and when you come back, everything is the same, but everything is different. There are events you miss, and jokes you can’t be a part of, and even if people miss you, everything is not the same.

But what do you do when that happens? You still have a duty, you still must serve, you made a commitment. Pike loves her goddess, this is a fact, but she also loves and has loved so many others. She can not be like a dragon and just hold all that she holds dear to her close.

So she serves, and she goes to Vasselheim, and she goes to Emon; whoever, wherever needs the Champion of Sarenrae. Her problems, her feelings of loss and missing out do not compare to other people’s problems, so she leaves Scanlan, and teleports out with Allura, or Keyleth, or whatever magical authority needs her at that moment. Perhaps it will be a short trip this time.

Scanlan hates it when she leaves. He is so afraid for her safety, so worried that something will happen and she will dedicate herself to saving someone else, rather than save herself. She will fight, rather than run. She is brave like that.

It’s not that she’s not incredibly powerful, because he has seen what she can do, it is just that she is so selfless. She is so good. That’s why she’s needed, after all. He can not have her all to himself, she needs to help. She needs to be needed.

But everytime she leaves, Scanlan trusts in the one thing he knows has Pike’s interests at their heart. Other than Grog and himself, the only person Scanlan trusts is Sarenrae. Although he is the Champion of Ioun, and isn’t a big “God Guy”, Pike loves Sarenrae. So every time she leaves, whether it be early morning or mid-afternoon, Scanlan sees her off and then walks to the shrine they have built to Sarenrae in the backyard, prays for Pike’s safety, and then goes on with his day.

It is one of these early mornings that Pike discovers Scanlan’s prayers. She headed off to Zephrah with Keyleth, then promptly forgot her mace at home, and had to go back to get it. While rooting through their adventuring gear, tangled up as it is with Scanlan’s instruments and swords, she catches a glimpse of Scanlan, arms up to the sun. Grabbing her mace, she heads out to speak to him, overhearing what he is saying.

_Please, keep her safe. I can not do it all on my own, and you know she will never admit weakness. Show her that leaving does not mean abandonment, and that there is a way to heal from a distance. Touch her with the rays of the sun, with every freckle that appears, it is just a sign of our love. Guide her, provide her hope, and when she is done, bring her back to me._

\-----------------------------------------------

They tell all their friends about the baby coming at the same time, at a picnic thrown on the anniversary of all of them meeting. It has been long enough that the occasion, while still sad is not riddled with grief over Vax, and is one of the few times that Keyleth will come in from Zephrah and the De Rolo’s (all of them!) come in from Whitestone. Grog is overjoyed, and the announcement provides for an excuse for them all to get together again in four months for a shower, and three months after that to meet the little tyke.

It’s a tough pregnancy, mostly emotionally, for both Scanlan and Pike don’t have much to go on for parenting, and certainly don’t know how to prep for an infant, but both of them have always done better in crisis rather than in stasis, so they make it through okay.

And when she is born, little Wilhelmina Juniper, she is the cutest thing they’ve ever seen, with lungs of her father and the fierceness of her mother.

They settle into domesticity with Mina pretty quickly, but one thing they learn about their child is that she, much like her mother and father, is prone to wandering and escaping and staying awake because there’s just too much to do during the day. Suffice to say, she’s a bit rowdy. Vex describes her as a little terror, and Grog is thrilled but exhausted by the whirlwind that is the littlest Shorthalt-Trickfoot.

There is one thing that is guaranteed to put little Mina to sleep though, and it is a lullaby sung by both of her parents. Passed down by Wilhand to help put Pike to sleep, it is a hymn from Sarenrae’s temple, one of returning home, of seeking redemption, of compassion for all. There is no place where the two of them feel more at home than singing over their child, showing her the intersection between music and the divine.

It is one of these such nights, with the two gnomes holding hands over Mina’s bed finishing the song, when they notice faint sparkles in the air. Shocked, the two look down at their child, watching sparkles explode from her hands as she clapped.

With Mina having magic, they learn quickly how to stop a firebolt in its path, as well as how to control a child who does not know how their magic works, and eventually, she goes off to learn how to control it at a school and becomes very powerful, as expected.

The Trickfoot-Shorthalts have two more kids, all who grow up incredibly loved, and they sing the same lullaby to all of them, each one growing up knowing that music can be a source for divine magic.

\------------------------

A bard, a sorcerer, a monk and a wizard sit in the front row of the Temple of the Sarenrae, the Everlight in the early morning. They are celebrating the renewal of vows of Pike Trickfoot-Shorthalt and Scanlan Trickfoot-Shorthalt, Champions of Sarenrae and Ioun, and they are the children of the lucky couple. Kaylie, the bard, attempts to appear as she is not crying, while Mina, the sorcerer, is openly weeping. The monk and the wizard, the two youngest Trickfoot-Shorthalts, grin, watching as their parents descend from the front of the temple. Others are there, Vex’s eyes bright clutching Percy’s hand, Keyleth wistful, Grog right behind Pike on the altar, but the two gnomes at the front have eyes only for each other.

As they descend, without any warning, a breeze blows both of their hair back and a sunbeam seems to illuminate them in golden light. A chorus of violins begins to play, and they suddenly find themselves floating above the crowd. Giggling, the gnomes hold hands and wave, noticing how shocked some of their guests look at the show, despite no one seeming to cast anything.

It makes sense though, for Pike and Scanlan. After all, their love has and always will be magic.

**Author's Note:**

> i just love pike and scanlan so much, and i think there aren't enough pikelan fics on here. please ignore my oc children i just needed them for the idea of magic children. also mina is 110% a divine soul sorcerer and i love her.
> 
> find me on tumblr @peri-dolt


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